Adhesives are typically used to couple a microelectronic device die to a substrate and/or to couple a stack of microelectronic dies. These adhesives are conventionally applied to microelectronic devices at the wafer level via die attach adhesive films, stencil or screen printable adhesive coatings, or spin-coatable adhesive coatings. In the case of films, a solvent is used for the varnish to coat adhesive films. After coating, the solvent has to be dried. Spin-coatable materials conventionally also contain solvents that have to be dried after wafer coating. Drying solvents can raise environmental concerns and increase both the processing complexity and time required to conventionally apply an adhesive to a microelectronic device wafer.
The conventional techniques for applying adhesives at the wafer level can also be wasteful insofar as material in excess of that required to coat the wafer frequently is cast off or must be removed. This waste also increases the processing complexity and time required to conventionally apply an adhesive to a microelectronic device wafer. Moreover, uneven coating thickness also can result from the conventional applications for applying adhesives to a microelectronic device wafer.